Gabby Petito’s parents emotionally respond to AI recreation of her voice in Netflix doc

The new American Murder: Gabby Petito documentary is one of February’s biggest series’, telling the tragic story of how the 22-year-old was murdered by her boyfriend Brian Laundrie. 

In the docuseries, Gabby’s text messages and journal entries are brought to life using AI voice recreation technology so that it actually sounds like her. 

Its creators Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro told Us Weekly they made this decision to tell the story through Gabby as much as possible. 

However, the 22-year-old’s mum Nichole Schmidt and dad Jim Schmidt have opened up about how they found the voice recreation really difficult.

Credit: Netflix

“I think it’s weird and because we know her actual voice, [it] is a little off,” her mum told The Independent. “It’s just hard to hear.”

Gabby’s dad added: “AI or her real voice, I still get upset hearing it knowing she’s gone.”

Some viewers have slammed the documentary for recreating her real voice, calling it “creepy” and “disrespectful”. However, the documentary’s creators have defended their choice and explained why they wanted to do it. 

“We had so much material from her parents that we were able to get. All of her journals since she was young and there was so much of her writing,” Gasparro said. 

“She documented her trips and most of her life from a young age. We thought it was really important to bring that to life. At the end of the day, we wanted to tell the story as much through Gabby as possible. It’s her story.”

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They did reach out to Gabby’s family to “get their blessing” and both Nichole and Jim were happy for them to use the AI technology. However, it doesn’t make it any easier for them to hear. 

Credit: Netflix

“In all of our docs, we try to go for the source and the people closest to either the victims who are not alive or the people themselves who have experienced this,” Nason explained about making the documentary.

“That’s really where we start in terms of sifting through all the data and information that comes with these huge stories. So her parents were the source for us that was key to uncover really what was going on.”

“They had access to her personal archive of video and artwork. We were able to really bring her to life through her own perspective, which we were very lucky to have.”

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Featured image by: Netflix